Effects of Media Compensation on Team Performance: The Role of Demographic Faultlines

Modern-day communication in teams is characterized by a frequent and flexible use of various communication technologies. To understand the relationship between this new way of communication and team performance, research suggests incorporating contextual factors. In this study, we explore the role of demographic faultlines and subsequent subgroup formation using data from 164 students nested in 34 software engineering teams working together over the course of 14 weeks. Multilevel modeling revealed a three-way interaction between media richness, communication intensity, and demographic faultlines on team performance. Weak faultline teams evaluated their performance more positively when they compensated for low communication intensity by using richer communication channels and vice versa. In contrast, strong faultline teams were less able to adapt their communication behavior to increase performance. We discuss theoretical implications for team communication and diversity research and provide guidelines for improving communication in diverse teams.